May 11, 2015

Rosberg dominates Hamilton in Spanish snoozer

The Circuit de Catalunya is renowned for serving up processional snoozefests and this year's Spanish GP did not buck that trend.
Literally the most exciting bits about this race were that Hamilton did not win and that a mechanic was hit in the nuts with an F1 car.

He's happier than most F1 fans

The nature of the course and the simple fact that team have huge amounts of data from testing in Spain makes it so that whoever wins pole is essentially assured a win, much like Monaco. Rosberg easily had the measure of Hamilton all week end.

Pretty sure you will hear some voices linking Lewis' meh performance this week end to his recent globe trotting fabulosity. He might will be thinking back on last year when his early season winning streak was broken by Rosberg. Hamilton still has a 20 point lead but he does not have a cushion against a DNF anymore. He might be thinking it might be a good idea to sign that contract after all.

For Rosberg it was do or die. Say what you will about the German, he certainly does not give up. He controlled Lewis and made it look easy. Next up Monaco, a track he's very comfortable with and has beaten Lewis before, if controversially.

Pass the popcorn.

As for Ferrari, a downer after such a good start in the Asian races.
The Scuderia brought major aero updates but it's hard to say if they did not work or if Mercedes simply had come up with better ones in the past three weeks. In the end the stopwatch talks and bullshit walks and Ferrari were an average of 7/10th a lap slower, Vettel finishing 45 seconds behind Rosberg.

Couple that with a questionable strategy call of not covering Hamilton an you have a bit of the Ferrari of old, not the shiny new Arrivabene model.
Shame because both Vettel and Raikkonen had great opening laps.